Boy racers cost all young drivers

YOUNG drivers are being encouraged to soup up their vehicles by car magazines - but the consequences are higher motoring premiums for all young drivers, even responsible ones.

Insurance companies such as Esure are so worried about this trend that they have called for a ban on these car magazines for drivers under 21.

Magazines such as Max Power and Fast Car encourage young male drivers to make their cars faster so they can drive them at high speeds. Two in three Max Power readers are aged under 25.

These boy racers are pushing up premiums for responsible young men who buy smallengine cars when they first start driving. Insurers are particularly concerned because they believe many of these boy racers are driving while uninsured.

Having spent so much money making their cars faster, they can no longer afford the high premiums. Damning statistics show young drivers are involved in far more accidents and deaths on the road than any other age group.

• ONE in three young male drivers will write off a car in their first year of driving. Young women are half as likely to do so.

• ONE-QUARTER of the convictions for causing death by dangerous driving are for drivers under 20, even though this age group represents just 3pc of all drivers.

• ONE-QUARTER of drivers under 21 who have an accident lose control of their car.

• MORE than 130,000 under-25-year-olds were convicted of driving without insurance in 2001, more than half of total convictions.

The effect of all of this is that insurance companies are now being pressed to offer huge noclaims bonuses for young men who drive small-engine cars and do not have an accident, while imposing higher premiums on those with souped-up cars.

Responsible young female drivers are losing out even more than the men. Young women generally have higher premiums than males, but they account for just one-tenth of those people convicted of driving without insurance. This also highlights that it is not simply a matter of the cost of insurance.

Insurance for young drivers causes a problem for companies. Young drivers crash more often and more expensively than anyone else. They get more convictions, cause more deaths and serious injury, roll more cars and drink-drive more.

There is no other way for insurers to assess premiums other than by looking at age and responsibility for accidents. As a result, all young drivers are made to pay. But there are ways of reducing your premiums.

The best new cars for young motorists are the Ford Ka, Renault Clio, Vauxhall Corsa or other similar small cars.

One problem that insurers find is that older cars with big engines tend to be among the cheapest to buy, so many youngsters go for these. However, they are heavier and tend to cause more damage when there is an accident, and they do not have some of the extras found in modern cars, such as power steering and antilock brakes.

John Sootheran, editor of Max Power, says: 'We worship cars, we don't want to see them smashed up. If anyone has any evidence that car magazines are capable of causing crashes, I'd love to see it.'

Fast Car did not want to comment.

• ASHLEY LOPEZ was staggered when he found out how much he would have to pay for his car insurance. The 17-year-old mechanic from Brighton (pictured) can barely afford the £1,397 he pays each year for third party fire and theft cover on a 1.1-litre M-registration Ford Fiesta with Direct Line.

Ashley passed his test in February and has been driving responsibly so that he can benefit from a no-claims bonus next year. He says: 'Car insurance for someone my age is really expensive and that is because I am having to pay for accidents that boy racers have. Insurance companies should reward drivers who are responsible and use smaller cars while they gain some driving experience.'